Red Devils' relay qualifies for districts, takes gold

WEST GOSHEN -- Avon Grove’s girls arrived for the eighth annual New Balance Henderson Track and Field Invitational meet at West Chester Henderson’s J. Oscar Dicks Stadium on Friday with a goal.

The Red Devils were intent on posting a time in the 4x100-meter relay that would qualify them for the District One Class AAA Championships. And that’s just what they did.

The foursome of Grace Cavanaugh, McKenna Keegan, Jill Rooney and Ellie Pollock pooled their talents to log a time of 50.70. It was a time fast enough to qualify them for districts -- and put them in a tie with Perkiomen Valley for the gold medal. Both teams won their respective heats.

“This was the first time we ran our loaded 4x100,” said Cavanaugh. “We ran a good time and qualified for districts. We needed a 51.14 and we got a 50.7. Our handoffs were good -- especially considering the first time we practiced them with this lineup was yesterday.”

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Keegan said, “I felt good. Grace and I had a good handoff. And then everything went well with my handoff to Jill.”

Cavanaugh and Keegan set up the win and then Rooney and Pollock put on the finishing touches.

“I think we had just gotten into first before I handed off to Ellie,” said Rooney.

Individually, Pollock snagged the silver medal in long jump with a leap of 17-11 and Rooney won the bronze medal in the 100 hurdles with a time of 15.98.

“I was far behind the board on all my jumps -- but not real far on the 17-11,” said Pollock. “I know what the problem is. It will be fixed by districts.”

The Red Devils also added a silver medal to their collection when Moriah Fitzgerald placed second in pole vault with a height of 10-6.

“I’m stuck at 10-6 and I’m trying to get out of it,” said Fitzgerald. “I’m not doing the top of the jump enough. I think I need a bigger pole. We discovered that today.”

The only other area gold medal was produced by Unionville’s Courtney Smith, who crossed first in the 3200 with a time of 10:29.08.

“My main goal was to pick it up at the sixth lap and really push,” said Smith. “The first five laps felt good. I was in second behind Eliza (Friends Central’s Eliza Lukens-Day, who was silver medalist with a time of 10:45.75) until I hit the mile.

“The last 400 felt good. That’s always the best part of the race because you’re picturing yourself crossing the finish line. It was my p.r. (personal record) for the 3,200. I’m way ahead of last year. My p.r. last year was 10:57.”

Other medalists in the girls meet were Great Valley’s Crosby Spiess, who was second in the 400 at 58.57, and West Chester Henderson’s Victoria Dennis, who was second in discus at 110-6, and Natalie Deacon, who was third in the 1,600 with a clocking of 4:57.20.

“I was very happy with that race,” said Deacon. “It was my p.r. and it set a new school record. But, I’m not sure if I’ll run it at districts. I’ll probably stay with the 800. I still have some unfinished business in the 800.”

In the boys meet, West Chester Henderson’s Tony Russell finished second in the 3200 at 9:07.08 and his teammate Kevin Moy took third in the 800 with a time of 1:55.06.